A Zaydi state was established in Daylaman and Tabaristan (northern Iran) in 864 C.E. by the Alavids;[17] it lasted until the death of its leader at the hand of the Samanids in 928 C.E. Roughly forty years later the state was revived in Gilan (north-western Iran) and survived under Hasanid leaders until 1126 C.E. After which from the 12th-13th centuries, the Zaydis of Daylaman, Gilan and Tabaristan then acknowledge the Zaydi Imams of Yemen or rival Zaydi Imams within Iran.[18]

The leader of the Zaidi community took the title of Caliph. As such, the ruler of Yemen was known as the Caliph, al-Hadi Yahya bin al-Hussain bin al-Qasim ar-RassiRassids (a descendant of Imam al-Hasan) who, at Sa’da, in c. 893-7 C.E., founded the Zaidi Imamate and this system continued until the middle of the 20th century, until the revolution of 1962 C.E. that deposed the Zaidi Imam (see Imams of Yemen). The founding Zaidism of Yemen was of the Jarudiyya group,[1] however with the increasing interaction with Hanafi and Shafi’i Sunni Islam, there was a shift from the Jarudiyya group, especially the Hadawi sub-sect, to the Sulaimaniyya group.

Currently the most prominent Zaidi movement is the Shabab Al Mu’mineen (also known as Houthis) who have been engaged in an uprising against the Yemeni Government in which the Army has lost 743 men and thousands of innocent civilians have been killed or displaced by Houthi and government forces causing a grave humanitarian crisis in north Yemen. Shia Population of the Middle East[21]

Some Persian and Arab legends record that Zaidis fled to China from the Umayyads during the 8th century ce.[22]